


Working Things Out

by hunters_retreat



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Ed returned to the military, Ed still has automail and alchemy, Healing, M/M, No alchemy in the arena, Post-Promised Day, Prisoners, Shell Shock, Trying to move on, arena fighting, gladiator style fighting, vague references to violence commited in the arena
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-21 19:47:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18146645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: “Ed,” Mustang pulled him closer until their foreheads rested together.  “That place, what we had to do, I will never stop having nightmares about that.  But this?” he cupped Ed’s face with his free hand and swiped his thumb under Ed’s eye.  “I think about this constantly, and what I wouldn’t give to have you with me still.”





	Working Things Out

**Author's Note:**

> Written for no reason whatsoever :P Beta'd by the awesome [tinyinsignificanthumans](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyInsignificantHumans/pseuds/TinyInsignificantHumans). All mistakes mine!

Ed stared at the door in front of him and tried to gather his courage to knock.  He was due back to work in two weeks, though he’d been granted a transfer to work under Armstrong.  He had to face Mustang sometime though and it was better in private than in front of everyone else. He had no idea how this would go, or even what he wanted. 

It had been a month since he’d last seen the man.  Since he’d last … he shivered at the thought and tried to push back the memories.

_Blood stained hands pressed to once pale skin, now covered in layers of dirt and muck.  Ed bit his lip bloody to keep quiet but he never quite succeeded.  He blamed it on the cold.  The thin mat they had was the only comfort in their small cell and the cold never went away.  Here, pressed back against his body, was the only relief from it.  It was the only relief from any of it._

He knocked on the door before he could change his mind.  He pulled his coat closer to try to get warm.  He hadn’t felt warm since he’d been captured.  Only when… needless to say, he’d spent a lot of time cold in the last six months.

The night air had a sting to it and Ed decided to give it one more minute before he went home.  This was stupid.  There wasn’t really anything to talk about.  Obviously what happened… happened.  There was no need to rehash it.  He should just turn around and go home.  Mustang wouldn’t seek him out to make an issue of it at work and they could just ignore anything else.

He turned to walk away, but there was a click behind him and Ed knew what waited for him.

“Leaving so soon, Fullmetal?”

Ed turned back and looked at the figure in the doorway.  The light illuminated him against the darkness and Ed clenched his fists against the desire to reach out. 

“Sorry, did I catch you in the middle of something?”

Mustang didn’t answer, but took a step back to invite Ed in.  Mustang turned to walk down the hallway and Ed managed a few steps before he had to stop and close his eyes. 

_The walls of the hallway closed in as he made his way towards the arena.  Somehow, something about this placed blocked his ability to do alchemy.  The only way to survive was to fight.  He stopped, unable to take the final steps that would thrust him back into the bright light and the cacophony of sound, but a hard shove from the blunt end of the glaive in the guard’s hands made him stumble forward into the battlegrounds._

“Ed? It’s safe here,” he heard Mustang’s voice over the clamor of his memories.  A second later, he felt the other man’s hand at the back of his neck.  He didn’t move closer, just let his fingers clench and unclench in Ed’s hair until Ed felt himself grounded in the moment.

“I’m fine, Bastard,” he said, but the words were too soft and they both knew he wasn’t.

Roy watched him for a second before he turned back down the hallway, but he didn’t say anything when Ed caught his hand and held on.  He just twined their fingers together and led Ed to a front room that glowed with light.  The fire behind the grate was big enough to keep the place warm, but blankets bundled on the couch told Ed a different story.

Mustang couldn’t get rid of the cold either.

“Would you like a drink?” Roy asked as he released Ed’s hand.

“Sure.  Something… warming,” he answered.  He wouldn’t admit to the depth of the cold under his skin either, but the other man would understand.  Neither of them was alone in the aftermath of what had happened, even if they’d tried to be.

He took a seat at the end of the couch and was handed a drink a moment later.  Their fingers brushed as Ed took the glass and he nearly gasped at the warmth of the Flame Alchemist’s touch.

_Rough hands skimmed under Ed’s shirt and reached the waist of his pants.  Ed bit his flesh hand as he tried to hide how good it felt.  Mustang didn’t need any boost to his ego, but Ed needed this, to feel the comfort of another body, to know he wasn’t alone in the dark of the cell._

_A sob clawed it’s way up his throat and he was pulled even closer to the man behind him.  “I’ve got you, Fullmetal,” the voice whispered in his ear.  Fullmetal, like they could forget who they were if they used impersonal names.  Ed didn’t correct him though._

_Mustang’s hand pushed Ed’s pants down just enough that he could wrap calloused fingers around his cock.  Ed shuddered at the touch but arched up into it.  He’d never been touched by anyone else’s hands.  He’d had dreams once, fantasies of how this might happen.  He’d never thought it would be like this though._

_He wasn’t stupid.  This had been a long time coming between them.  It was only a matter of time, once he’d returned back to work with Mustang and his team after the Promised Day, but he had always thought … later.  They would have time.  Now, time was a luxury that they were quickly running out of.  No one stayed alive in the arena for long._

_“Mustang,” he groaned the man’s name and the fingers around his length tightened.  He was so damn close and then Mustang leaned in and Ed could feel his tongue on the back of his neck, his lips and breath as he panted against Ed.  He could feel Mustang’s cock, hard pressed against his ass, and that was all it took.  He moaned, felt the sharp sting of teeth against his nape, and then he came over Mustang’s hand._

_“Fullmetal,” Mustang breathed heavily into his skin, “I need…”_

_“Whatever you need,” Ed stopped him before he asked.  He didn’t know what Mustang wanted, or what Ed could give him, but they were all they had here.  Two warriors in a never-ending fight to survive a game they’d never wanted to play._

_Ed felt himself pressed onto his stomach.  Mustang shifted over him until he was straddling Ed’s thighs.  He heard the zipper and braced himself, but then Mustang leaned forward to hold himself over Ed with his hands, and his legs tightened around Ed’s thighs.  “Just like this,” Mustang whispered into the dank night air._

_He felt the press of Mustang’s cock between his thighs, slicked and hot, pushing against the back of his balls and even if he’d never done anything like this before, he pressed his thighs tighter and felt Mustang moan against the back of his neck._

_He didn’t say anything else, but Ed felt the come-slicked slide of him between his legs and the hot breath on his skin.  Mustang didn’t say anything and he certainly didn’t need Ed’s encouragement to seek his own comfort.  In the end, Ed shifted his hips back slightly to give Mustang a better position and then let him thrust away to his own end.  When Mustang found it, he bit hard against the back of Ed’s neck again and Ed couldn’t help but moan at the feel of sharp teeth and the splash of hot come between his legs._

_Ed would like to try to clean himself up after, but part of him realized there was nothing clean there to help, and the other part felt warmed by the seed still on his skin.  By the knowledge that for a moment, at least, he had offered comfort._

_They both fixed their clothes quickly and while Ed debated pulling away after that, Mustang pulled him back to his chest and their shared body heat under the laughable scrap of fabric they called a blanket._

_In the dark of the cell, hours after they both should have fallen asleep, he heard the soft whisper that was never meant to be heard.  “We’ll figure this out, Ed.  Somehow, when this is all over, we’ll figure this out.  We’ll… we’ll make it work somehow.”_

A snap in front of his face pulled him out of the reverie and he had to blink at the too bright lights for a moment before he realized he wasn’t still in the cell.

“Does that happen often?” Mustang asked.

Ed took a sip of his drink before he had to answer.  Mustang didn’t try to hurry him.  He took a seat at the other end of the couch and pulled the blankets up around himself.  Ed didn’t think about it before he pulled his knees under him and did the same.  No need to pretend he didn’t need the warmth of it.

“Not that often.  Sometimes, I guess.  The doctors say its shell-shock.  Whatever the fuck that means.”

“Trauma induced flash-backs, sensitivity to some environments, hypersensitivity to certain sensory input,” Mustang began to ramble off.

“Shut up,” Ed said between clenched teeth.  He looked over at Mustang who had his head down and was playing with the edge of the blanket.  Oh.  “You too?”

“Yep.  And it’s not my first time in this particular rodeo.”  His voice was quiet and he took a long drink.  He held the glass between two hands and stared into the liquid left.   

“Ishval?” Ed’s voice was far more gentle than he’d ever been with Mustang, but it wasn’t a topic to touch on casually.  Especially not in the light of their current circumstances. 

“Not officially.  I refused to let them document anything for fear that someone would see it on my permanent records.”

“This time?”

Mustang took another long drink from his cup.  “I can’t go back to work yet.  They had to give a reason.”

“I’m sorry.  Does this mess with your whole plan to take over the world?”

Mustang gave him a half smile but it didn’t reach his eyes.  Something about his expression made Ed want to reach out to Mustang, but he didn’t.  “I don’t know.  I can’t … see that right now.”

“I’m supposed to go back in two weeks,” Ed offered into the conversation.  “They’re transferring me to Intelligence.”

“Armstrong is a good man to work with.”

“You already knew?” Ed asked.  Mustang nodded his head and Ed sighed.  “I should have told you.   I’m sorry.  I just didn’t know how to … what to do with this.”

Mustang let out a deep breath and dropped his head to the back of the couch.  “You and me both, Ed.”

A shiver ran through Mustang and Ed was moving before he realized it.  Mustang had one arm up over the back of the couch and Ed fit perfectly under it.  It wasn’t the first time he’d offered comfort and warmth in this way, even if he never thought he’d do it again once they were freed.

Mustang didn’t seem to notice he was there but his arm pulled Ed tighter against his body and Ed relaxed, turning into the other man’s chest and wrapping an arm around his waist.  He felt warm again and Ed tried not to show it, but he couldn’t quiet stop the sigh that escaped his lips.

“I thought you might get past this easier if I wasn’t around,” Mustang confessed.  Even as he did so though, he moved to pull Ed into his lap, both arms settling around his waist.  Ed went willingly.  He’d been too headstrong to try to contact Mustang.  He’d been determined to do it on his own, and his own uncertainty about the other man had kept him from even trying.

“You’re an idiot,” Ed said as he buried his head in the crook of Mustang’s neck.  Mustang let out a small laugh and it was the most real sound Ed had heard from him all night. 

“I don’t sleep well,” Ed admitted.  “Any time something good happens I expect to wake up there, like getting away was just a dream.”  Mustang’s hand began to stroke through Ed’s hair and Ed stilled as his thumb traced the scar at the nape. 

_Mustang had his hand buried in Ed’s hair, then moved it to cradle the back of his head.  Ed’s back was pressed to the wall of the bathing pool with his legs wrapped around Mustang’s hips.  Their lips touched but it wasn’t a kiss anymore, more a sharing of breath than anything else.  Mustang thrust into him and Ed gripped his shoulders tighter._

_They were alone in the bathing pool, a chance to get clean that was only given after a particularly vicious fight and their patrons were feeling generous.  Ed couldn’t remember what clean had felt like before, but now it was pale skin under his hands and the taste of Mustang’s lips against his own._

_Mustang had spent most of their time in the water trying to work the knots out of Ed’s hair and Ed would never admit how much he liked it.  He thought he didn’t need to, with the way Mustang kept pulling at it as he fucked Ed in the pool._

_“Come on, Mustang,” Ed whispered against his lips.  “Make me feel it.”_

_Their lips were crushed together and Ed moaned as Mustang sped up his pace.  This was all he wanted.  To be warm and safe, right here with Mustang.  It would end before long and they’d be put back in the dingy cells with the others, but now he could taste clean skin and run his fingers through clean dark hair._

_“Don’t think they meant for us to get dirty as soon as we got clean,” Mustang teased as he pressed his lips to Ed’s neck and bit._

_Ed screamed Mustang’s name as he came, long and hard between them.  Mustang’s hips rolled into him a few more times but the bite was always the first warning that Mustang had found his release._

_“Fuck,” Ed whispered as he rested his head on Mustang’s shoulder. “Why do you always have to bite?’ he complained._

_“Maybe I want to leave you something to remember me by.”_

 

Ed was staring into Mustang’s eyes when he came out of the memory this time. 

“Ed?”

“Sorry.  It’s not usually this bad,” he admitted.

“Maybe this was a bad idea,” Mustang said softly.

“I don’t know.  I just … tonight it’s not the arena I keep falling back into.”

“What was that then?” Mustang asked.

“The bathing pool.”  Ed shrugged.  “At least it was a good memory.  As good as they got there, anyway.”

“Does this bother you?” Mustang asked as he brushed his thumb over that spot again.  Ed shivered, but he closed his eyes and shook his head.  He didn’t know how to say that he longed for the bite again.  That the three weeks since they’d been found had been excruciating because of the separation. 

“Ed,” Mustang pulled him closer until their foreheads rested together.  “That place, what we had to do, I will never stop having nightmares about that.  But this?” he cupped Ed’s face with his free hand and swiped his thumb under Ed’s eye.  “I think about this constantly, and what I wouldn’t give to have you with me still.”

Ed let out a broken huff of a laugh.  “All you had to do was call, Bastard.”

Mustang’s lips descended on his and Ed nearly sobbed at the way Mustang seemed to wrap around him and fill his senses.  There was nothing else, just this heat that grounded him and called to him. 

“Ed, stay with me,” Mustang asked against his lips.

“As long as you’ll let me,” Ed answered.

“Can I take you to bed?”

“Yeah but … can …” he wasn’t sure how to ask for what he wanted, but he tried anyway.  “Bath?”

Mustang smiled at him.  “Of course.  Good thing I have a large tub.”

“Of course you do.  Hedonist.”

“I like a good soak after a long day,” he said.  Ed felt Mustang’s arm move under his knees and the other shifted and he was being lifted off the couch.  He wasn’t light, couldn’t be with that much metal attached to his body, but Mustang had shown a surprising strength to him in the arena and he had only gotten stronger while they were in the cells. 

“Hey!  Put me down!”

Mustang smirked.  “I should warn you.  I like to treat my lovers with romantic gestures and sweet presents.”

“Is this your way of saying you’re going to do this all the time?”

“Maybe not all the time, but when the occasion demands it.”

“And how does this demand it?”

“Sweeping you off to the bath so I can have my way with you before I take you to my bed for the first time?  That is an occasion, Ed.”

“We’ve been fucking for five months, Mustang.”

Mustang stopped and looked at Ed, searching for something.  Ed didn’t know what he found but he leaned closer for a kiss.  Instead of the hot, demanding kisses Ed had expected, he got the soft brush of lips against his own.  “You’re right.  We were.  Tonight, I’m going to make love to you for the first time.”

Mustang kissed him again, his tongue pleading entrance and Ed opened completely to him.  There was nothing Mustang could ask that Ed wouldn’t give him.  For six months, their only safety had been together.  Now, they just had to find a way to make this part work and get on with the rest of their lives. 

“You better get me to the bathroom before you drop me,” Ed teased when Mustang pulled back.  “I don’t get lighter the longer you hold me up.”

Mustang pressed one more quick kiss to Ed’s lips, then turned back to their trek to the bathroom.  When they entered, he sat Ed down on the toilet and began to move around the pristine room.  It gave Ed the chance to admire the clean white tiles and the pale green rugs that littered the floor.  The bathroom was large, dominated by a white porcelain clawfoot tub.  Mustang turned on the taps and played with them a moment until the water came out to the temperature he wanted.  He grabbed three thick green towels from a cabinet on the other side of the sink and placed them on the sink’s edge.  He checked the water temperature once again before he turned his attention back on Ed.

“I feel I should warn you,” Mustang said with a smirk.  “In the future there will probably be sweet smelling oils and very flowery language, comparing your hair to the most stunning of flowers and how their petals hold no glory of your beauty, but I know I’ll have to work you up to that.”

Ed rolled his eyes.  “You’re likely to get punched in the face.”  Even as he said it though, his cheeks grew warm and he knew Mustang would see the blush.  Ed wasn’t deserving of that sort of flattery but it didn’t hurt to know that Mustang found some part of him attractive.  Ed had enough rough edges, scars, and metal to know exactly how hard someone had to look to see the beauty.  That didn’t even touch on the stains of his soul. 

Mustang smiled at him like he knew it was all bullshit but he was smart enough not to say anything.  Instead, he stepped closer until he was standing between Ed’s knees.  “May I?” he asked.

Ed nodded and then Mustang sank down onto his knees and he began to slowly remove Ed’s clothes.  He started with the jacket and laid that carefully along a shelf beside the sink.  He undid the buttons of Ed’s shirt then. 

The room was beginning to heat up then, with the steam of the bath filling the room.  Ed refused to acknowledge the heat of Mustang’s body, so near to his own, but he knew that part of the growing warmth was the closeness between them.  When Mustang slipped the shirt off his shoulders, tracing his arms as he pushed the shirt down, Ed shivered into the touch.

“Mustang,” he whispered the name and lips were softly pressed to his own.  

“Roy,” Mustang whispered against his.  He pulled back slowly and Ed took a deep breath.  It meant something, to call him by his first name.  There was an intimacy to that, more so than anything else they were doing tonight, which made it all the more real. 

“Roy,” he echoed the name and Mustang brought one hand up to cup his face lightly.

“Ed,” he leaned in again, his lips against Ed’s in a soft kiss.  There was a tenderness in his gesture that they’d never shared and Ed leaned in for more.  When Roy licked across the seam of his lips, Ed opened to him, eager for the taste of him.  He felt Roy pull at the holder that tied Ed’s hair back and then it fell around them.  Not to be outdone, Ed reached for Roy’s shirt.

Roy pressed closer against him, deepening the kiss and Ed slid his shirt off, dropping it to the floor next to his own.  He reached for Roy’s belt buckle and pulled it loose before Roy pulled back.  Ed chased his lips, but Roy stilled him with his hands.

“My turn,” he said as he had Ed stand up.  Ed did, a little transfixed by the sight of Roy on his knees before him.  It was surreal.  He associated this image, as with all of them from before, in dark corners and hidden moments.  He’d never thought to have this again, once they escaped.  Without thought, he brought a hand up to touch Roy’s face.  Roy smiled at him and Ed felt something in him relax.  Roy undid his pants and slid them slowly down his legs, but he didn’t tease or touch Ed in any way, except to remove his clothes.

“This way,” he said, taking Ed’s hand as he led him to the tub.  Roy turned the water off and helped Ed to step in.  It was hot, but not scalding.  Ed had always preferred warm water to cold, but since the arena he couldn’t get warm enough.  Alphonse had admonished him more than once with the red of his skin after a bath.  He’d been running it hotter and hotter as the days went by to get warm.

Ed let out a heavy sigh as he leaned back against the tub.  He wondered briefly how Roy ever left the damn thing, but before he could think too much on it, Roy leaned close to his ear and whispered, “Sit up and scoot forward a little, Ed.”

He did as he was told and wasn’t surprised when he felt Roy settle behind him in the tub.  Water threatened to splash over the edges if they got too rambunctious in the water but it felt divine, especially when Roy pulled him back to his chest. 

It only took a moment for Ed to decide he needed to move.  He turned over to his side, curled up slightly in the water, and rested his head on Roy’s chest.  Roy simply wrapped his arms around Ed and held him a little tighter.  To his surprise, a soft sigh came next and when Ed looked up, Roy had his eyes closed but a small smile was spread across his lips.  He knew the signs and he knew what Roy said, but he looked so content in that moment that Ed finally felt like this, just maybe, had a chance.  That they might have a chance, no matter the shitty beginnings.

After a few minutes, he felt Roy moving and looked up to see him pouring something into his hands.  He leaned up and began to work shampoo into Ed’s hair.  He was meticulous about it, taking his time to work it in and wet it over and over again with his cupped hands.  When it was rinsed, he ran conditioner through it as well, leaving Ed smelling slightly of Roy.

Ed was only too happy to sit up and return the favor.  He was much more playful with it, but Ed already knew that Roy had developed an unhealthy relationship with his hair.  It would be worrisome if he didn’t like it so much.

When they were done, Ed curled back onto his side and pressed his head to Roy’s chest.  “I’m never leaving, now that I know about this tub,” Ed said softly. 

Roy chuckled.  “So long as you follow me to bed afterwards, I can live with that.”

Ed looked up at Roy and when the other man leaned closer, Ed pushed up into another kiss.  It was more heated than before and Ed moaned as Roy deepened it.  “I want you, Ed,” Mustang whispered into his ear.  “Right here,” he continued.  “Not the memories, not the grime or the pressures of the arena to dictate this.  I want you.  I have since before we were taken.”

Ed nodded.  “Me too,” he confessed.  “I always thought, soon, you know?  Something would happen and I was okay with letting it wait, but now, all I can think about is getting back to you.”

Ed knew there were still issues there.  Neither was fully recovered and mentally it would take time to deal with what they’d done, but the chemistry between them had always been there.  This wasn’t falling back, this was healing.

He felt himself being turned and he drew his knees up until he was straddling Roy.  The tub was a little tight like that, but he could still move.  When Roy placed his hands on Ed’s hips and smiled up at him Ed couldn’t help but say, “Hedonist.”

Roy laughed as he pulled Ed in for a kiss.  He felt Roy’s hands on him then, sliding over his arms and down his chest, across his abdomen and over his thighs.  He ran his fingers through Ed’s hair, then down his spine and finally he cupped his ass.  “Ed, let me take you to bed,” he asked.

Ed was practically putty in the man’s hands and there was no real question as to what his answer would be.  He stood slowly and let Roy up.  Roy got out first and wrapped a towel around his waist before he came forward with a towel for Ed.  He wrapped one around his waist also but took the other one with him as he let Ed back to his bedroom by the hand.

Roy sat Ed on the side of the bed and began to slowly dry his hair.  Ed would complain about the sudden lack of sexual activity but the feel of fingers working through his hair made all thoughts leave his head.  Roy worked his hair dry and pulled out the knots clear before he brushed the hair to one side.  Ed didn’t have time to register the movement before he felt Roy’s hot breath against his neck and the sharp sting of teeth.

“Roy,” he moaned as he arched into the other man.

“Ed, please.”

“Yes.  Anything, yes,” Ed answered.

Ed felt himself turned and he let Roy push him onto his back.  Fingers and lips trailed down his body, but it was only a few moments before Roy swallowed his cock at the same time he pressed a finger into his body.

“Fuck, I missed you,” slipped out of Ed’s mouth before he could stop it but the words didn’t seem to phase Roy.  Roy moaned around him, but his ministrations never faltered.  He opened Ed up slowly, until he was four fingers deep and Ed was begging for more.

Then, he pressed kisses up Ed’s torso, ran his tongue over the edge of Ed’s automail and laid playful bites along his neck and chest. 

“Come on, Roy,” Ed said as he grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him closer.  “Do it already.”

Roy smiled.  “As you wish,” he said as he settled between Ed’s knees and pressed against his opening.  He was opened so damn well that Roy bottomed out in one long thrust.  They both moaned at the feel of it and Roy’s hands found Ed’s and twined them together as he brought them over Ed’s head.

They were face to face, eyes locked on each other with each thrust and countermove.  Their lips brushed here and there, but they shared breath more than kisses. Ed couldn’t take his eyes off of Roy and he felt pulled farther and farther into their depths.  It was dizzying, this feeling of being with someone, so connected to them.

He felt the climax build slowly, surely, the languid pull of ecstasy, so different from the hurried release they had shared in the arena’s cells.  “Roy,” he warned his lover.

“Yeah,” Roy said softly, and it was all Ed needed to let the wave crest over him.  He came untouched, over his stomach and felt the slide of it on Roy’s skin.  Roy turned his head at the last moment to bite at the scar he’d left in the cells, a perfect circle of teeth marks on the left side of Ed’s neck towards the back.  He felt his lover’s stuttered movements as well and knew that he’d reached the same crest with him.

Ed closed his eyes and caught his breath as Roy panted, lips against his skin and hands still entwined.  When Roy pulled out of his body and settled on the bed, they curled up facing one another, instead of cradling their bodies together.

Roy touched his face lightly, then let his fingers trace Ed’s bite mark.  “Tell me it’s not just tonight, Ed,” Roy whispered.  It was the first time since this started that Roy sounded unsure of himself.

“Like I said earlier, I’m here for as long as you’ll keep me.”

It was too much to say, too honest, but this was all he had right now and he needed Roy to know where they stood.  Roy had put himself out there tonight emotionally in ways Ed had never thought he would.  Ed wasn’t about to make him take this journey alone.

“Let’s start with tonight, and see how we make the rest of the week work out,” Roy said with a smile.

It was more than enough, because Ed knew what he meant.  Tonight would bleed into tomorrow and into the next day, and every day would be a new test, a new trial, to what they could manage together.  But next week would come, and the month after, and soon it would be years. 

It was a promise to try, a promise that didn’t give a deadline or an end date.  It was whispered words in the dark, promised when he had no right to believe they would see through the dark days. 

“Yeah,” Ed grinned as Roy moved in for another kiss.  “We’ll make it work out.”


End file.
